water(drinking pump help)

Post by **gti mad man** » 21 Jul 2008, 20:28

My villa 3 has a water tank under the van and a pump under the RNR all welll and good but it wond suck the water up form the tank the first tiem you fill it ive tried,it has foot mounted switch and i have to suck it at the pump lol.

1)new pipes throughought
2)2 inline one way valves one by tank one before pump
3)tried leavign water in there to no joy
4) finger over the tap trick

Any ideas how i can stop having to prime it manualy?

Post by **ringo** » 21 Jul 2008, 20:39

Try taking the pump to bits (thats if you are sure there are no air leaks anywhere else) and checking the seal ?

I bought a replacement pump off ebay (not exactly the same - it has a smaller bore) but something is still not right...

Ringo

Post by **kevtherev** » 21 Jul 2008, 20:53

how old is the pump?

are the valves working/right way round

Post by **gti mad man** » 22 Jul 2008, 12:44

The pump is the original it only has a in and out ive cleaned it and blown air through it ,pretty sure it just has a big diaphram, it looks liek a radio controlled car motor.

ive got another pump here have tried that too , no joy still need to prime it

Pump once goign runs fien really nice flow rate just wont self prime?

Post by **teutonic T3** » 22 Jul 2008, 15:27

this all sounds familiar? me too has the same problem, i can get the water to the impeller but no further unless i suck it through!

i have now given up!

Post by **AngeloEvs** » 22 Jul 2008, 15:38

The diaphragm creates a vacuum and that is how suction occurs (same as a Fuel pump I suppose). You must be sucking air in on the inlet side is all I can think of. I only know of one non-priming pump, the Whale GP74.

Post by **gti mad man** » 22 Jul 2008, 16:19

what i do is take the hose of the pump inlet then suck with my mouth till waters there ,re-conect hey presto fine for rets of the weekend

Refill the system and whatya know have to suck again

Post by **kevtherev** » 22 Jul 2008, 16:32

refill before it runs out

have you a water level gauge?

Post by **Mocki** » 22 Jul 2008, 17:37

dump the pump and get a whale submersable one and bung in in the tank.
its what everyone else with that conversion does( or the ones i know anyway)

Post by **gti mad man** » 22 Jul 2008, 17:39

kevtherev wrote:refill before it runs out

have you a water level gauge?

sorry i shouls have been clearer i dont let the water run out never goes lower than say 1/4 tank

Post by **gti mad man** » 22 Jul 2008, 17:40

Mocki wrote:dump the pump and get a whale submersable one and bung in in the tank.
its what everyone else with that conversion does( or the ones i know anyway)

cunning plan apart from my tank straps are rusted solid only way to remove them would involve mullering them boho

Post by **kevtherev** » 22 Jul 2008, 17:54

gti mad man wrote:
kevtherev wrote:refill before it runs out

have you a water level gauge?

sorry i shouls have been clearer i dont let the water run out never goes lower than say 1/4 tank

then you have 3 options as far as I can see..

drop the pump below the water tank level.
or what mocki said
or get a new pump that self primes (see caktanks for that)

Post by **Nicola&Tony** » 22 Jul 2008, 20:26

gti mad man wrote:cunning plan apart from my tank straps are rusted solid only way to remove them would involve mullering them boho

Cak tanks also sell the brackets / straps iirc.

Tony

Post by **gti mad man** » 23 Jul 2008, 17:29

ok i may have found a comparativly cheap solution.

options to get a proper self priming pump are about£70 "frell" that me thinks.

I tried to move my pump outside the van down by the tank outlet but in order to work correctly it hung to low(as its a verticle pump) boho

looking on ebay ive come across inline pumps these weigh bugger all and can go under the van (bit lower than the tank) withought being ridicolously low........

Post by **ringo** » 24 Jul 2008, 12:53

Got any links to them Andy?

Are they the same diameter pipe?

Ringo